TSMC will continue to innovate to keep Moore's Law alive, and maintaining the company's technology leadership is always a fundamental strategy, said TSMC co-CEO Mark Liu at a recent event in Hsinchu.
TSMC has been mass producing 16nm chips, and is looking to enter volume production of 10nm chips by the end of 2016. Moving forward, the foundry will start risk production of 7nm chips in early 2017, and has been engaged in the development of 5nm process technology, said Liu.
While TSMC's R&D for 5nm process continues, a team of the foundry's 300-400 engineers has already been involved in R&D for 3nm process, Liu indicated.
TSMC also expects to team with academics to develop 2nm process technology, according to Liu. With technology breakthroughs, TSMC is confident Moore's Law will continue to be relevant.
Smartphones will continue to provide growth momentum for TSMC in the future, Liu noted. With new smartphones coming with more innovative features, the number of ICs and sensors will continue to grow. Meanwhile, chipmakers will have to constantly upgrade their technologies for the manufacture of advanced ICs and sensors for phones, Liu said.
High-performance computing (HPC), Internet of Things (IoT) and system integration are also the applications that will drive TSMC's future growth, Liu indicated.
TSMC co-CEO Mark Liu
Photo: Shihmin Fu, Digitimes September 2016